Pearl Harbor

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On December 7th we honored the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Approximately 3,700 Americans died, with another 1,000 wounded. Soldiers and civilians alike lost their lives on that fateful day.

It was a normal day at Pearl Harbor, a U.S. Naval Base in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was 7:55 a.m. on a sunny Sunday morning. The regularly performed procedures were being handled. Everything was proceeding normally.

Until those planes descended on the base.

Suddenly, everything was chaos. There had been no warning of an attack. While the radar system had picked up the incoming fleet, it had been mistaken for a group of American planes due from the mainland that morning. About 360 Japanese planes dropped bombs and torpedoes on the base. By the time the attack ended, about 170 American aircraft were destroyed, along with nearly 20 naval vessels, including 8 enormous battleships.

That was one of the greatest military catastrophes America has ever faced. But true to our heritage, we did not lose our fighting spirit of bravery. Many heroes rose above on that fateful day, such as Annie Fox and Doris Miller. Those are two more commonly-known heroes, but there were many more. Many men and women alike made the greatest sacrifice possible, and we owe our freedom and our way of life to them. Let’s honor them and remember the seventy-sixth anniversary this week.